Mwanyengwa Ndapewoshali Shapwanale is the communications and stakeholder relations director at ReconEnergy in Namibia.
Following five significant oil and gas discoveries made between 2022 and 2023, Namibia’s upstream market has seen strong interest from global E&P players.
Companies such as ReconAfrica, a Canadian-based explorer, have amplified their exploration efforts.
The company’s Director of Communication and Stakeholder Relations, Shapwanale, is integral in driving ReconAfrica and Namibia’s energy narrative, inspiring those in the field.
Shapwanale is featured on the African Energy Chamber’s (AEC) list of 25 Under 40 Energy Women Rising Stars. Please share a brief overview of your energy industry journey leading to your current role.
My journey in the energy sector started in April 2021 when I was approached to provide multimedia consulting, specifically social media services, to my current employer, ReconAfrica. I immediately realized I could give much more to the company and engaged the representative to propose my additional skills and how to assist the company.
This included media relations, corporate communication, government relations, community relations, and brand crisis management. Fast forward a few months, and I was appointed Director of Communication and Stakeholder Relations. A major part of my role is ensuring and maintaining social license.
I am particularly proud of our team’s work in community relations. While maintaining a social license is an ongoing and continuous exercise, I am pleased with the work we have put in as a team. I will continue to work towards progressing this responsibility.
Another proud achievement must be our work towards providing safe and secure access to potable water to the communities in our area of operations through the drilling, installing, and handing over of community water wells in our three years of operation.
Apart from the communities, especially women and children, having to walk long distances to fetch water, this is an area where human-wildlife conflict is rampant because of the communities’ dependency on the Kavango River for water.
Being able to provide an alternative water source, I believe, contributes to saving lives and meeting the government halfway in its aims to alleviate and even totally eradicate the human-wildlife conflict. Further, the Namibian nation is relatively new to the oil and gas industry, as the past few years have been the most visible action we have seen in the country.
For the nation and the average Joe on the street to understand, welcome, and meaningfully participate in oil and gas activities, there must be efforts to educate and inform about the industry and the energy sector at large.
In my communication role, we have trained the media to report from an educated, understanding, and informed position. We have also collaborated with the University of Science and Technology to host bi-monthly public lectures on oil and gas activities in the country.
These sessions have been highly successful, with an audience of over 600 in person and a maximum of 900+ online. The audience included students, professionals from all fraternities, diplomats, academics, and government officials.
The speakers included the Minister of Mines and Energy in Namibia, the Petroleum Commissioner, lawmakers, geologists, and educators, to name a few. Lastly, I am pleased to have teamed up with exceptional fellow women in the industry to establish the first-ever Women in Oil, Gas, and Energy Association in Namibia, a body aimed at advancing women in the energy sector.
Energy poverty is an African reality, and Namibia is not singled out from this reality. Further, my area of operation is one of the most socially challenged in our country, and I have started. I will continue to use my role to tackle these challenges innovatively to ensure that my country and our continent benefit from its resources.
The energy industry is known for its complexities. What significant challenges did you face along the way, and how did you navigate them to achieve your goals? It has to be the onslaught accompanying the frowning upon oil and gas exploration and development of this resource by African countries and the public’s perception of oil and gas exploration and development.
I was fortunate to hear the AEC chairperson speak on the transition early in my career and grasp the concept of African solutions for African challenges. This helped me focus on the matter, ensuring I performed my role without listening to the unwarranted attacks.
Adopting the just transition and African solutions for African challenges has also helped me focus on the bigger responsibility: to ensure meaningful, impactful, and tangible contributions to eradicating energy poverty in Namibia and the continent, meaningful participation in the sector and meaningful benefit from the energy sector.
Are there any specific strategies or mindsets that helped you overcome obstacles and reach your current position? Humility, listening to those who have been in the sector, putting in the work, collaboration and willingness to learn, learn, learn! I was very privileged to have been welcomed into the industry with open arms by so many, including the leadership in the country’s oil and gas sector.
I specifically want to highlight the women, including Maggy Shino, Victoria Sibeya, MME Dep Minister Kornelia Shilunga, and Taimi Itembu, to name a few. Leadership in my company is the true definition of meaningfully giving a young black woman a seat at the table and supporting her in the role.
It is important to note that more is needed to be given a seat at the table; the work must continue to maintain that seat. To be considered at the table should not be to satisfy a quota but because one can excel, achieve, and deliver.
An energy career can be demanding. Could you describe a typical day in your life? Demanding indeed! I am typically up by 05h30 and start my day with reflection, praise, worship, or prayer—not every day as I would like to. Because our team works in different time zones, I use my mornings to attend to emails that may have come through at night. Having planned my to-do list the night before, I start executing my items for the day.
My role involves a lot of writing; therefore, I am constantly writing or preparing messages. Our meetings usually take place in the late afternoon or early evening. I work well at night and therefore choose to action some of the deliverables right after our sessions, in the evening. With stakeholder relations, I am also constantly working on monitoring our links and finding ways to maintain or improve them.
One must be innovative. There are a lot of moving pieces all the time. The last two hours of my work day are dedicated to upskilling. I try as much as possible to take short courses to assist me in carrying out my role.
Meaningful participation in the energy sector, advancement of women in the energy sector, community understanding, being informed and educated about the energy sector, meaningfully benefiting from the industry, and overall.
I truly believe that local content and meaningful participation in the energy sector need to start with an understanding and education of the sector.
An example is understanding that there are specific skills and capital capabilities we do not have and how we will work with operators to achieve our goals in combating energy poverty and social challenges throughout the energy sector.
I believe that I can use my role as a vehicle to educate the Namibian nation on the energy sector for meaningful participation. Additionally, being on the ground and understanding the social challenges means using my role as a vehicle to be innovative in tackling these challenges and ensuring meaningful impact.
As a female executive in the energy sector, it is my duty to show other women that it is possible to be in the energy sector meaningfully. At the same time, I have the critical task of showing and proving that women in the sector are capable, deliver, and have the skills to contribute to the industry. Moreover, women should not, are not, and don’t just want to be considered because we are women and can fill a quota, but we have the capacity, put in the work, have the skills, are capable, and deliver.
Credit: African Energy Chamber
